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Portrait of the late Associate Justice Rodman, presented to the Court

Portrait of the late Associate Justice Rodman, presented to the Court - Page 1

APPENDIX.
PORTROAF ITTTIE LATEA SSOCIATEJ USTICREO DL~APNR,E SESTEDTO THE COURT
ox 6 FEBRUAR18Y95,.
Hon. Geo. H. Brown, Jr., addressing the Court, said:
MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT:-I~ behalf of his sons and daughters, I have
the honor of presenting the portrait of WILLIAMB LOUSTR ODMANw,h o mas for
ten years of his life a member of this Court. It is right and proper that we
should not only preserve in the volumes of the Reports of this Court the evi-dences
of the wisdom, learning, and ability of its members, but that their
familiar faces should look down from their canvases upon the scene of their
earthly labors and triumphs. It is not only calculated to inspire your Honors
to emulate the ~snmples of your great predecessors and to write your names
in large letters upon the judicial history of the State, but the young men who,
on each recurring term, go forth from this room to engage in the generous
rivalry, and encounter the difficulties of our profession, will catch hope and
inspiration as they gaze upon the noble features of the dead jurists whose
portraits ornament these walls. They will remember the humble origin of
many of them, the obstacles overcome, and the difficulties surmounted, and
perchance ambition's spark may be fanned into an energetic flame by the con-templation
of their careers.
"Lives of great men oft remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time."
He, whose lifelike portrait I have the honor to present, was born in the
town of Washington, Sorth Carolina, 29 June, 1817, and was the son of TVil-liam
Wanton Rodman and his wife, Polly Ann, the daughter of that John
Gray Blount whose name is so well known throughout Eastern and Western
North Carolina as the largest landowner who eyer lived in the State. The
subject of this sketch came of intellectual ancestors on both sides. His father
is said to have been a very able lawyer and a man of much intellectual force,
who practised law in the city of Kew York for a number of years, and removed
to Washington, North Carolina, in 1811. The maternal grandfather, John
Gray Blount, is said to have been a man of strong and rugged personality,
progressive and enterprising, of great force of character and excellent judg-ment.
He was not a member of any of the learned professions. Tlye residence
which John Gray Blount constructed, and where he lived and died, is now
standing in the town of Washington, and is the home of Judge Rodman's
surviving sister.
From the early accounts that we have of him, the youth of Judge Rodman
was very precocious. At the early age of five years the young boy William
Rodman was at school, and according to the reports of his teacher, still in
existence, he could at the tender age of seven years scan and translate Latin.
It frequently happens that extraordinary, precocious children do not fulfill the
promise of their youth. In this case, however, the youth was but the father
of the man. A remarkable capacity to acquire and assimilate learning mas
manifested in him almost before he was out of frocks, and he retained his
faculty in a most remarkable degree unimpaired up to the dose of his long
and laborious life. It was not simply the power to remember that he pos-sessed,
but it was the faculty of complete assimilation. What he read and
learned became a part of his intellectual fiber. AS the healthy stomach takes
631

APPENDIX.
PORTROAF ITTTIE LATEA SSOCIATEJ USTICREO DL~APNR,E SESTEDTO THE COURT
ox 6 FEBRUAR18Y95,.
Hon. Geo. H. Brown, Jr., addressing the Court, said:
MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT:-I~ behalf of his sons and daughters, I have
the honor of presenting the portrait of WILLIAMB LOUSTR ODMANw,h o mas for
ten years of his life a member of this Court. It is right and proper that we
should not only preserve in the volumes of the Reports of this Court the evi-dences
of the wisdom, learning, and ability of its members, but that their
familiar faces should look down from their canvases upon the scene of their
earthly labors and triumphs. It is not only calculated to inspire your Honors
to emulate the ~snmples of your great predecessors and to write your names
in large letters upon the judicial history of the State, but the young men who,
on each recurring term, go forth from this room to engage in the generous
rivalry, and encounter the difficulties of our profession, will catch hope and
inspiration as they gaze upon the noble features of the dead jurists whose
portraits ornament these walls. They will remember the humble origin of
many of them, the obstacles overcome, and the difficulties surmounted, and
perchance ambition's spark may be fanned into an energetic flame by the con-templation
of their careers.
"Lives of great men oft remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time."
He, whose lifelike portrait I have the honor to present, was born in the
town of Washington, Sorth Carolina, 29 June, 1817, and was the son of TVil-liam
Wanton Rodman and his wife, Polly Ann, the daughter of that John
Gray Blount whose name is so well known throughout Eastern and Western
North Carolina as the largest landowner who eyer lived in the State. The
subject of this sketch came of intellectual ancestors on both sides. His father
is said to have been a very able lawyer and a man of much intellectual force,
who practised law in the city of Kew York for a number of years, and removed
to Washington, North Carolina, in 1811. The maternal grandfather, John
Gray Blount, is said to have been a man of strong and rugged personality,
progressive and enterprising, of great force of character and excellent judg-ment.
He was not a member of any of the learned professions. Tlye residence
which John Gray Blount constructed, and where he lived and died, is now
standing in the town of Washington, and is the home of Judge Rodman's
surviving sister.
From the early accounts that we have of him, the youth of Judge Rodman
was very precocious. At the early age of five years the young boy William
Rodman was at school, and according to the reports of his teacher, still in
existence, he could at the tender age of seven years scan and translate Latin.
It frequently happens that extraordinary, precocious children do not fulfill the
promise of their youth. In this case, however, the youth was but the father
of the man. A remarkable capacity to acquire and assimilate learning mas
manifested in him almost before he was out of frocks, and he retained his
faculty in a most remarkable degree unimpaired up to the dose of his long
and laborious life. It was not simply the power to remember that he pos-sessed,
but it was the faculty of complete assimilation. What he read and
learned became a part of his intellectual fiber. AS the healthy stomach takes
631